Keystone
by drinktea
Summary: A collection of shorts featuring Kou Shuurei, the people she meets, and her role in their lives. Fourth & last: Ran Ryuuren.
1. Beauty: Hakumei

If you were to be completely objective, Kou Shuurei's appointment as governor of Brown Province had aged her. The skin of her hands had dried from rough treatment. Her fingers seemed to mould perfectly for a brush. Her shoulders sagged in a pose indicative of many nights spent leaning over a document. Even her hair seemed to shine dully.

When the doors to the Imperial Council opened to reveal her, she shocked everyone. She was walking forward already, waiting not a beat. Her business was too important not to be rushed.

Hakumei watched her from the fringes of the crowd. She shone. Her hands were resolutely in loose fists. Her shoulders were back, but not with arrogance. Her lips were tinted the faintest pink. Gold and jewels swept back her hair and held it in place.

Above all were her eyes. They were underscored by the blueness of bags, with pretty little laugh lines beginning at the far corners. These eyes were wiser than he'd seen them last. They had seen much. They had smiled much. And they had cried.

If you were Hakumei, you stood rooted to your spot, smiling, thinking to yourself, _she's become beautiful._


	2. Name: Ensei

"Ensei!" warns Sai Shou.

Ensei stabs the soldier accurately in the stomach with his staff. The soldier falls as easily as his comrades did, and Ensei whirls in place to take down another. Sai Shou runs to the crank wheel and starts opening the doors, before another soldier tries to stop him.

When Ensei approaches though, the soldier nearly pees himself in fright. "Rou Ensei!" he can only shriek, and then promptly books it back down the length of the gate wall. Well, it's nice to know that his reputation precedes him.

Most of the other soldiers bolt as soon as his identity is revealed, so he figures Sai Shou is fine on his own, and leaps over the wall. It's a vertical drop that he surfs, and Ensei has done this plenty of times before. It's the quickest way down, but he'll have to buy new shoes.

Shuurei tears away from General Ran and jumps into him and the momentum forces him to spin them twice in a circle before he sets her down. Even when she's safely back on the ground, she goes on hugging him, her face in his chest. She's saying his name over and over again so happily that he can't let the joke loose: _I know my own name, you know_. He can only pat her on the head as he's taken to doing.

Even though she's just saying his name, it's a nice feeling, to be greeted with such a welcome.


	3. Silent Agreement: Kouyuu

He sets down his brush and lets out a suffering groan. That's all he can handle for today. It's not often that he does this, but he turns in his seat to look out the window at the fair spring day. The cherry blossoms bloomed at the perfect time this year, and the wind is gentle, fluttering petals into the green grass. It's really quite beautiful. He can understand how Ryuuki is motivated to visit the gardens everyday.

A soft knock echoes from the doorframe and to his ears. He turns, a smile already forming on his face.

"Are you done for the day?" she asks him.

He makes a noise of assent, and rises from his chair. He walks over to her and takes the food she's prepared from her hands. It feels a bit heavy today.

She nods in thanks, then watches him carefully, gauging his mood, and indicates that they walk. He falls into step beside her.

When they arrive at the archives and take their places by the window, he immediately starts to disassemble the tower of food. The more delicate dishes are always on top, and he's learned by now to be careful, lest he split a mould of jelly in half or spill a dessert soup. Today, her famous manjuu are part of the lineup, and his stomach releases a growl, hotlinked to his eyes apparently. She lets out an appreciative laugh while he faintly blushes.

He lays them all out. She readies their table settings. Then they look each other in the eyes and start to eat.

This routine has become a comfort to them both. She comes quietly to him, suspecting that he may lose his way otherwise, and they walk together. She tries to teach him the twists and turns so that he can navigate them himself one day. He always carries the food for her. He always brings tangerines, because that is how this started.

He peels a tangerine and hands it to her, which she smilingly accepts. His hands sticky with rind, he takes a manjuu in hand.

Between the bookstacks, Reishin, Ryuuki and Seiran all watch for one less-than-innocent act, with Shouka shaking his head and Kurou nodding, satisfied. 


	4. Music: Ryuuren

_This will be the last foreseeable chapter of this collection. Thank you for reading. Reviews are appreciated.  
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><p>The sound of erhu and flute could be a beautiful combination.<p>

So it was a terrible pity that the erhu player had to be Kou Shuurei and that the flute player had to be Ran Ryuuren.

This was what the people living near the Kou estate thought each evening as the Ran prodigy visited the resident princess for dinner, then inevitably stayed to practise their instruments.

It was a shock at first, to learn that the young man, so famous for his flute playing, was actually a genius on any other instrument. The melodies were perfectly coherent. He played the classics with ease, and composed his own songs with skill. Occasionally, the song choice in both performers would overlap, and the result was bewitching to any who should hear.

But when it was the flute Ryuuren favoured, watch out. Shuurei would beseech him not to play, looking out for her neighbours, and she won half of the time. The other half of the time, her neighbours knew to plug their ears with small bundles of cotton.

It was strange, they thought, how Shuurei could stand his flute. It was even stranger that the two should play, but not together. Why practise together but not select the same song?

A group of onlookers caught the flautist leaving that evening, speaking to Shuurei from beneath her window. "I'll see you next when the wind wills it, soul friend number one."

Several pairs of eyes shot to her face, eager for her reply, engrossed by their miraculous friendship.

Shuurei was smiling mildly, eyes twinkling in the faint lamplight. She must have known that he'd come again next evening, but she just nodded. "See you then, Ryuuren."


End file.
